The Diner at the End of Time and Space
by Anguirus111
Summary: Fred, Jodie. Dinner. A turning point in time. A conversation for the ages.


A/N: I think the last name of the diner at the end of time was called Mabel's. If not, just replace the name with the right one. I haven't seen the show in years and never read the books. This is more a challenge to myself to see if I can write something romantic which is a genre I don't typically do.

Beyond Time and Space sat a quiet unassuming diner overlooking the whole of time and space. Not futuristic in the slightest, the eatery would've looked at home in the 1950s on a planet called Earth. The only things setting it apart were the robot server behind the counter, the strange food being served to the customers, that the customers were wearing garb and dialects from up and down the timeline, and that not all of them were even human; some were alien, protoplasm, and other things indescribable.

In one particular booth, though, the occupants would've looked perfectly normal for anyone from the 20th century. They were both in either their late teens or early 20s but that was where the similarities ended. For one, the person on the right was a Caucasian male wearing jeans, a blue and white t-shirt, and a similarly colored baseball hat on his head. The one on the right was an African-American female wearing a red skirt, yellow and red shirt, and had nothing atop her curly-haired head. Even the food in front of them was completely different. The woman was calmly enjoying noodles and shrimp with her chopsticks while the male was noisily wolfing down a hamburger with ketchup, mustard, and cheese falling on top of the fries in the basket below.

But despite their differences, the two had similarities to everyone else in the diner in that they each had a unique story that ultimately brought them beyond time and space. For starters, the two may have looked like they came from the same point in time, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The woman wasn't even from the 21st century, she was from the 22nd and had been born a good 100 years after the man. Perhaps that explained her better table manners…

What also set them apart from everyone else in the diner was that they were here by choice. Due to the quirks of fate, the rest of occupants had at some point in their lives fallen through a tear in the fabric of reality and were all trying to decide whether to jump into the vortex and hope they might see home again. But the two in their booth weren't entirely passengers on the forward progression of time, they had, in their own small ways, managed to control their travel through the river which made them time travelers.

How they managed to pull of such a feat was still mostly a mystery but in large it had to do with the two seemingly innocuous items sitting on the table next to the window: an old-time pocket watch and a blue book with strange writing scribbled on it. The two devices could-in theory-take the bearer to any point in time and space they wished to go, but more often than not took them to not where they wanted to be but where they needed to be.

The two at the table, the sports loving boy named Frederick "Fred" O'Leary and the woman, Jodie Arthur had been part of a larger group of time travelers who had many adventures up and down the space-time continuum. Some were fun, many were incredible adventures, and others terrifying. But they had all had a great time and they had become really good friends doing it.

But even though the group had largely freed themselves from the boundaries of time, that didn't mean it still didn't have a hold of them in one important way: aging. As time went on, the group had stopped being children and had grown into teenagers and eventually matured into young adults. And their outside lives began to take more of a hold on them. The rest of the gang had slowly moved on with their lives and had gone adventuring less and less until at some point a time came that they stopped travelling altogether.

What had become six had become five and fewer until it was only the two sitting at the table, Fred and Jodie. If the two had noticed, they never verbally said. But even though it was the two of them, they hadn't given up on adventuring up and down the space-time continuum. Jodie's control over the book had increased exponentially and so they increasingly managed to go exactly where they wanted to if they didn't decide to randomize their destination. They'd even successfully managed to use the book to visit different worlds and different realities, timelines, dimensions, you name it. The one constant was their always visiting Mabel's to relax

But despite all their adventures and everything they saw, both were seemingly blind to one important realization. But the long-time customers at Mabel's noticed it. Through their travels, the duo had grown closer and closer to each other. In the early days the two had argued about anything and everything. Then their arguments had become fewer and fewer and in its place was laughter and joking. The two still argued from time to time, but the customers got the impression both enjoyed trying to one-up the other one. And none of their arguments ever left them angry, just very amused.

But lately something had seemed to change between the two. Fred was as talkative as ever but lately Jodie had become more and more quiet and withdrawn ever since her most recent birthday. She still talked with Fred but it no longer seemed to be with as much enthusiasm as before. Something was troubling her, the only question was what. Because today her mood hadn't improved any.

"And so from what I heard afterwards, Joe's little magic trick set off the sprinklers and everyone had to evacuate the entire building," said Fred laughing at something Joe had recently done while at college. Joe and Sam had both gone off to college, also explaining their increased absence from time travel adventures. Freddie and Samantha had similarly gone off to academy in the 22nd century. Both duos had briefly entertained the idea of going to school in the different century but ultimately decided against it.

But for Jodie and Fred; neither admitted it out loud, but both could tell the other were not currently pursuing higher education. Jodie knew Fred couldn't be tied down at a desk learning things. He was a man of action, always had been. He'd certainly kept up his athleticism over the years and she sometimes wondered why he didn't just try out for the major leagues. Something was stopping him, she just didn't know what.

Fred for his part couldn't fully understand why Jodie hadn't earned her Ph.D. yet. She was definitely bright, capable, and intelligent. But instead she seemed restless about something like it was gnawing away at her from the inside. He just hoped he'd figure it out before it was too late to do anything about it.

"So how're Freddie and Samantha doing?" Fred asked, curious. Joe was studying theater to try and follow his Uncle Joe as a stage magician and Sam was interesting in quantum physics. He wondered if Samantha was studying something similar and wondered what subjects Freddie was interested in.

But rather than get a response he was greeted with silence. Finally drawing away his attention from his triple-pattie burger and saw Jodie was absently staring at her noodle bowl while poking at the shrimp with her chopstick.

Seeing this, Fred could only sigh softly to himself. "Earth to Jodie, earth to Jodie," he called out to get her attention. Hearing her name seemed to finally get her attention and she finally shook her head briefly to clear the cobwebs and look at him.

"I-I'm sorry, what were you saying?" she asked. "Something about Freddie and Joe?"

Fred narrowed his eyes at her knowing she really hadn't been paying attention to him at all, she was once again lost in her thoughts. Enough was enough.

"What's with you, Jodie?" he had to ask, a little annoyance showing through. "You never used to be this absent-minded before."

Jodie shot him a look. "I'm fine, Fred," she insisted harshly. Fred shook his head.

"No, you're not," he told her bluntly as he leaned back in his bench. "Don't lie to me, Jodie. What's going on inside that head of yours?"

Jodie sighed and rested her head on her hand as she stared out the window into the abyss. She stayed that way in silence as the conversation from the other diners became more and more distant in the background. Though it was eavesdropping a little bit, all the diners knew this conversation had been a long time coming and had been dreading it at the same time. The outcome was something none of them could predict, not even Mabel who had more insight into the space-time continuum than most.

For a moment time even seemed to freeze but then seemed to just as quickly start again as Jodie turned to look at Fred again…and drop a bombshell at the same time.

"After today, I'm joining the Time Police," she revealed point blank while staring into Fred's eyes. Fred nearly choked on the last bit of burger in his mouth as he heard that and he had to force it down.

"WHAT?!" he then shouted, almost completely beyond words at her unexpected revelation. The diners definitely returned to their conversations at this point.

"I've been thinking about it ever since my last birthday when I became old enough to enlist with them," Jodie admitted, finally giving voice to her innermost thoughts.

"But you can't join them," Fred said, amazed he was having this conversation and that Jodie was seriously considering such an idea. "They're a bunch of thugs who don't care about their officers' safety or wellbeing. They'll send you on dangerous mission after dangerous mission for no reason to try and fix something that may or may not need fixing. And then if you somehow make it to retirement, they erase all your memories and then dump you somewhere along the timeline never to be seen or heard from again by friends or family. Even you won't know the person you were before you joined them."

Fred had had his encounters with the Time Police before, none of them good, and it was definitely coming across in his tone.

"Regardless, my mind is made up," Jodie promised crossing her arms in front of her chest defensively about her decision.

"But why?" Fred had to know. He wasn't going to give up on her without a fight.

"That's none of your damn business," came the curt reply. "Why do you care anyway?"

Fred shook his head at her attempt to deflect the question. "Because you're my friend, Jodie. We've been through a lot together. I just don't want to see you throwing your life away."

Jodie glared at him briefly when he said that. "Forget about my life, what about yours? Joe and Sam have moved on already from this crazy lifestyle, why haven't you done the same?"

Now it was Fred's turn to glare. "I have my reasons," he offered noncommittally.

"Like what?" Jodie goaded, too lost in her own emotions to know when to back off. "Because you like the thrill of travelling through time too much? The rush that comes when you're avoiding spears, arrows, bullets, the gallows, becoming someone's dinner. I hate to break it you, but we've been fortunate so far. It won't last forever."

"I know that," Fred snapped at her before shifting uncomfortably. "But it's not all about the thrill of adventure. In all of our adventures so far, more often than not our group has ended up helping somebody with a problem they've been having. That's what I enjoy the most. Remember when you, Sam and I wound up getting Jinga out of that jam in Africa? I think that's when I first began to notice the difference we were making. I like helping people."

Jodie remembered the Jinga incident too but for different reasons. A head on a platter, a bunch of bananas on her head, the awful feeling that…

Mentally shaking those thoughts away she contemplated the book sitting next to her.

"You're going to have a hard time doing that without me to guide you through the space-time continuum with the book," she reminded him crossing her arms. Fred shrugged.

"I've gotten better with the watch. I'll manage," he reasoned. Jodie laughed into her hand hearing that.

"You'd almost be better off just stepping out into the temporal vortex. If the vortex were like a river, the book is a luxury yacht and the watch a canoe with no paddles," she stated.

"I'll take my chances," said Fred stubbornly. "But my mind's made up. I'll still do my best to earn a higher education but I'm not spending the rest of my life in the classroom and some dead-end job. I'll be spending it hopping in and out of the time stream."

Jodie narrowed her eyes at him. "And if you do that with blatant disregard for the laws of time, the Time Police will come after you. If they send me, I'll hunt you down until the beginning and end of time. And I won't think twice about catching you and erasing your memory of all of this."

Fred gave a lopsided smirked at that. "At least while that happens I'll be able to still keep an eye out on you. That just makes it easier than having to always track you down."

Jodie reared back into her chair upon hearing that. "I don't need watching over," she said a little weakly, her eyes wandering off to look outside the window.

"Well, you're right don't need someone to, but I think you secretly want someone to," Fred pointed out. Jodie now looked at him sharply.

"And just what do I need looking out from?" she had to ask, a question she dreaded. But while her mind wanted to think Fred didn't know anything about her, her heart felt…

"With your ongoing mastering of time and space, you're afraid of turning into Mad Jack," came the words she feared the most. During their years together, Fred had somehow become able to read her like a book. Despite being family, even Joe and Anna had never been able to understand her true motives and thoughts like Fred. And though she would never admit to it; deep down she knew that the same was true of her knowing his thoughts when compared to Freddie.

One reason for that might be that their time travels had scrambled their molecules so much that their thought processes had become somehow linked. The second reason involved a question to which answer she feared more than possibly turning into Mad Jack with a desire to control the entire time-space continuum.

"Just leave me alone, Fred, you don't know anything about me!" she said angrily as tears threatened to form in her eyes. "After today none of it will matter anymore."

Fred sighed heavily and regarded her sadly. He'd hoped things wouldn't have escalated to this point but now that it had… He now knew he had no choice but to lay his final card on the table.

"Well then if I never see you again then there's only thing left to say," he began reluctantly before standing straight up and strengthening his resolve. "Jodie, I-."

The woman in the other bench knew instinctively what he was about to say and shake her head vigorously while trying to cover her ears to avoid hearing it while tears threatened to fall from her blood-soaked eyes.

"Don't you say it Fred! Don't you dare say it!" she shouted at him so loudly that everyone in the whole diner could hear. Fred, however, refused to be budged from his current line of thought.

"Damnit, Jodie, if I'm never going to see you again I'm at least going to tell you how I feel about you!" he promised her. "I love you. And that's never going to change whether you erase my memory or not."

To her credit, Jodie didn't burst into tears even though she desperately wanted to for being in this situation knowing how Fred felt about her. Instead her head slowly sunk to the table where it was cradled in her arms with her face hidden from sight. Fred for his part said nothing but instead reached out his hand to gently smooth her hair and then picked up her right hand and gently kissed the knuckles before laying it back in its original position.

"I don't know when I first started feeling this way or when I came to finally realize it," the young man admitted helplessly. "But I guess all that matters is that it's how I feel now. Goodbye Jodie."

Fred then did the seemingly unthinkable and took off his treasured hat and placed it on Jodie's head before he paid the bill, grabbed the watch, and headed for the doors.

Behind him, Jodie was lost in a swirl of thoughts all bombarding her at once as memories of their time together flooded all her senses. From their first meeting, to hanging with Jinga, to fighting Mad Jack, to travelling together in time just the two of them.

And one final question: Would she be better off forgetting about her past and leaving it all behind knowing she would be living a live without Frederick?

Her left hand subconsciously found the book and tightened its grip on it. And she knew she really had no choice, she never had since the day they'd met.

"Fred, wait!" she shouted as she grabbed the book and raced to the front doors of the diner where the 21-century denizen had pushed open the front doors and was about to leap into the void.

"Yes?" he asked expectantly but not entirely sure what she was going to say as wind whipped in his face from the outside. Jodie pushed the hair off of her face and looked at him with a smile.

"I can't trust you to not make a mess of time without me," she said with a small smile as the unshed tears blew off her face. "So I guess that means I'm coming with you."

Now it was Fred's turn to give a genuine smile as he tightened the hat on her head.

"So does that mean you like me to?" he had to goad her once more. Jodie shrugged lightly.

"Time is always changing," she began. "But for now, yeah, maybe I do."

"Then get ready for a ride," Fred promised her. He then grabbed her hand with his and held it up between them as both raised the book and watch with their other hands. Then both leapt into the void as the doors slammed shut behind them.

…Inside of the diner, the denizens clapped briefly for them before returning their attention to their own situations…

And then with a heavy gust of wind, the doors blew open again and two new arrivals joined them in the diner. The two were definitely adults in likely their 30s and the diners who briefly looked at them thought they looked vaguely familiar but they had never recalled seeing them before. The African-American woman was decked in blue jeans while wearing a yellow fleece sweater with a well-worn baseball cap on her head. The Caucasian man was wearing black jeans along with a white polo shirt and a red jacket over it. Both of them were carrying large backpacks that held plenty of supplies and at the top were rolled up sleeping bags.

The two were laughing heavily to themselves about some adventure they had just had. They moved towards the now-empty booth and deposited their bags on one bench before settling into the other as the male draped his hand over the woman's shoulders. On closer examination, it was now clear that both wore wedding bands on their ring fingers indicating they weren't just man and woman, they were husband and wife.

"I can't believe that pie actually hit its mark," the woman laughed into her hands as tears threatened to form in her eyes from laughing so hard.

"Well you're one to talk with that whole 'you don't want to touch my beam of death' bit with your flashlight," the man shot back with a big grin. "Somehow I don't see Da Vinci ever writing about this encounter in his journals."

"Nope," the woman agreed as she looked around the diner. "Boy it's sure been awhile since we've been here."

The husband removed his arm from her shoulders and also took in the place. "Yeah, not since…"

"I know," said the wife nodding her head nostalgically as she picked up the menus from their holsters and handed one to her partner. "What'll you have?"

"I need a coffee to wake up," said the man rubbing his face vigorously to try and wake up. "I'll order a cup for both of us."

The wife briefly tensed up upon hearing that before relaxing again. The topic she'd known now for a couple months had finally arisen. She'd been putting it off for the right time and place and now that they were in Mabel's once again it was clear fate had spoken up for her.

"No coffee for me, not for the foreseeable future," she stated putting down her menu and facing her husband. Her spouse regarded her strangely.

"But you always have coffee when we go to a diner," he said confused. "You haven't been replaced with an alternate universe version of my wife have you?" he teased. The wife gave him a good natured whack on the shoulder upon hearing that.

"You wish," she stated lightly before turning to face him and look into his eyes. "Do you remember when we first started surfing the time continuum, what we called ourselves?"

The man scratched his light beard before nodding his head, still not sure where this was going. "Yeah, the Time Warp Trio because there were usually always three of us travelling together on a given trip."

"But it's been the two of us for quite a while," the wife continued still a little nervous at what she was about to say.

"Yeah…"

"What if I told you in a little while we'll be a Time Warp Trio again?" she asked him curious to see his reaction. The gears were turning in her husband's head but full realization was still somewhat eluding him. The wife took his right hand, gently kissed his knuckles and then placed his hand over her lightly protruding abdomen. The man looked at where his hand was and then finally it hit him and his jaw dropped.

"Is that okay?" asked the wife a little scared about the unknown now ahead of them but knowing together they'd always confronted it head on and conquered their fears. Her husband's jaw slowly closed and then slowly and completely upturned into a smile as he hugged his wife who laughed.

"Travelling through history is nothing compared to this," he admitted, still a little bowled over by his wife's revelation but still excited for the adventure ahead. "But what about…"

His wife shrugged, knowing who he was talking about. "She's still there. She wasn't erased from existence. I guess time works in mysterious ways. I don't know how I would take it knowing what I know about her ancestry."

"But always for the best," said the man agreeably. "Being a trio has always felt right."

Throughout the rest of their time in the diner the two had a lively conversation, an occasional disagreement, and plenty of laughs.

And then it finally came time to leave. The two paid their bill, put their backpacks back on, and headed for the front doors.

"Remember what I said when we last pushed through these doors?" the man asked as he pushed the doors open. Asking because he felt the words were as a true now as they had been when they'd last left the diner.

"Get ready for a ride," the woman answered with the same stunning smile she had given then. The two grabbed each other's hand and in their other hands, the husband held up a well-worn pocket watch and the wife a well-worn blue book with strange markings on the cover.

The two then leapt into the vortex as once more the doors slammed shut behind them at Mabel's Diner.

_There they go…_


End file.
